Northeastern’s Naloxone Outreach and Education Initiative, or NOEI, is challenging stigma by providing Northeastern and the surrounding Boston community with naloxone training and education.

Naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, is a life-saving medication that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose. The drug is an antagonist, meaning it attaches to opioid receptors and reverses or blocks the effects of other opioids. It’s widely recommended by healthcare professionals because of its low risk — if administered to someone who isn’t experiencing an overdose, Narcan will not cause harm. 

Despite its life-saving potential, the medication has been subject to significant backlash and remains a polarizing topic. Often, critics of Narcan assert that it is enabling or condoning drug use. But others see it as a safety tool — similar to “carrying a fire extinguisher or learning CPR,” according to the National Association for Children of Addiction.  

NOEI was originally started by Northeastern students Jamie Sanislow, Yotam Saban and Skylar Kohn in 2023, when it partnered with Northeastern’s Action Lab to teach people how to save lives using Narcan. 

“We want to reduce the stigma associated with the opioid epidemic because that’s a very big thing that’s happening in the U.S. right now,” said Saban, a 2025 Northeastern alum. “Boston, specifically, is a place that is hit super hard, especially in the area that Northeastern is in.”

Northeastern’s Boston campus is located less than a mile from the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, or “Mass and Cass,” which is largely considered to be the epicenter of the state’s opioid crisis. In 2022, Boston recorded 352 opioid-related deaths, disproportionately affecting Black and Latinx residents, according to the city. But this trend is not exclusive to Boston; the U.S. boasts the highest rate of overdose deaths in the world, far outpacing other countries.

“The increase in drug overdose deaths in Boston, particularly among Black and Latinx residents, emphasizes the urgent need for interventions across the city in overdose prevention and substance use treatment,” wrote Bisola Ojikutu, the commissioner of Public Health and executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, in a report.

While NOEI hosts meetings featuring activities like guest speakers or open forums, the club’s model is structured primarily around training people how to properly use Narcan. Its core team of 12 trainers leads sessions on and off campus. 

NOEI’s trainers can be found educating students in campus organizations — from Greek life to clinical skills classes for students on pre-health tracks. Off campus, members table in public spaces like the Boston Common, and, more recently, they’ve expanded their education efforts to Boston Public School classrooms.

During each 45-minute training, NOEI’s trainers explain how to recognize when someone is experiencing the symptoms of an overdose and how to administer the life-saving medication intranasally, or into the nose. Although the medication is not inherently difficult to use, NOEI goes a step further, providing comprehensive explanations of the mechanics behind opioids.

“We allow people to understand the actual biomechanisms behind how opioids work and how Naloxone then works to reverse that, so people understand what they’re using,” said Michaela Jaeger, a rising fourth-year psychology major and member of NOEI. “Especially when we’re talking to groups like medical frats, they want to understand that.”

NOEI is a licensed Community Naloxone Program, or CNP, through the Massachusetts government, which gives it access to subsidized Narcan. This allows the organization to distribute boxes of Narcan to each trained individual.

Although most of the club’s trainers hope to enter the medical field, others come from different backgrounds. Jaeger learned the importance of Naloxone through her father, who works in addiction medicine, and was introduced to NOEI after seeking out research opportunities.

Some of her most memorable experiences in the club have come from tabling at both Northeastern events and in public spaces.

“Reaching the point with someone who, when they first come up to you expresses [sentiments] like, ‘I don’t know why I would have this,’ and having a conversation with them about what they’ve heard about Narcan … and getting them to a point where they’re really excited to have the Narcan … that’s been really memorable for me,” Jaeger said.

Growing up, Jaeger’s father always carried Narcan with him. 

Jeffrey Jaeger, a professor of clinical medicine at Cooper Medical School in New Jersey and physician in the Division of Addiction Medicine at Cooper University Health Care, compares Narcan to a “smoke detector.” 

“You hope you never have to use it, but everybody should have some knowledge of how to put it to use if that unfortunate situation should arise,” Jeffrey Jaeger said. “I’m very hopeful that the time will come where everybody’s got naloxone on them, and no one ever has to use it.”

When describing the number of patients he’s encountered who have been saved by Naloxone, he says there are “too many to count.”

“Most people who get to me for treatment of their opioid use disorder have gotten there in part because they have hit rock bottom at some point,” Jeffrey Jaeger said. “This usually means some episode of overdose and naloxone rescue.”

Even if an individual isn’t comfortable administering naloxone themselves, having it on their person at all times can aid medical professionals in times of need. Jeffrey Jaeger said that there has been a decrease in overdose death rates in the U.S. partly due to more bystander awareness. 

In response to increasing demand, NOEI added 10 “trainers in training” last semester. On top of student advocacy, the organization has recently extended its CNP license to Northeastern as a whole, allowing student facilities like the Office of Prevention and Education to carry Narcan. In the future, members hope to supply the life-saving drug to additional facilities like University Health and Counseling Services.

Sabon said it has been a “tumultuous journey” to get the club to its current standing. Right now, it’s working with the Northeastern University Police Department to require officers to carry Narcan alongside their automated external defibrillator machines — small devices that can assist individuals experiencing cardiac arrest. On the advocacy side, it is supporting a new Massachusetts bill that would require all public high school students to receive Narcan training and hopes Northeastern residential assistants will be able to carry Narcan on hand in the future.  

For now, members like Michaela Jaeger have found community at NOEI as it works toward raising awareness about the U.S. opioid crisis.  

“While we might not directly see the effects of the opioid crisis every day, it is all around us,” Sabon said.  “And just because it doesn’t affect you directly doesn’t mean that people aren’t suffering and there isn’t something that you can do about it.”